Stephen Hillenburg (Photo/VCG)

Nov. 29 (NBD) -- Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the megahit Nickelodeon cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants, died at age of 57 after a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Hillenburg revealed that he had been diagnosed with the disease in March 2017.

"I wanted people to hear directly from me that I have been diagnosed with ALS," he said at the time. "Anyone who knows me knows that I will continue to work on SpongeBob SquarePants and my other passions for as long as I am able."

In 1984, Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University with a bachelor's degree in Natural Resource Planning and Interpretation, focusing on marine resources. Then he became a marine biology teacher at the Orange County Marine Institute (now the Ocean Institute) in Dana Point, California. While working there, he was asked to make an educational comic book to teach children about marine animals.

So he created The Intertidal Zone, a comic featuring anthropomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into SpongeBob SquarePants characters.

In 1987, Hillenburg left his job and began his animation career, pursuing a master degree in Experimental Animation at the California Institute of Arts in Valencia.

He made his first animated works, the short films The Green Beret and Wormholes, before graduating from the institute.

From 1993 to 1996, he worked as a director and writer on Nickelodeon's in-house cartoon series Rocko's Modern Life.

Hillenburg took about three years to develop SpongeBob SquarePants, a TV show about an over-optimistic sea sponge living in an underwater town.

On May 1, 1999, the preview of SpongeBob SquarePants debuted on Nickelodeon and become an immediate hit after it commenced the full run on July 17 of that year. The series became an immediate hit and about 60 million American viewers watch the show each month.

The series won both U.S. and British Emmy Awards, Annie Awards, and ASACP Awards and has been dubbed or subtitled in more than 60 languages.

SpongeBob SquarePants-releated consumer goods, theme activities, theme parks, movies and musicals are also popular, with the derivative product sales reaching more than 7.5 billion dollars.

In 2004, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie directed by Stephen Hillenburg and Mark Osborne was released, which grossed 140 million U.S. dollars worldwide.

Moreover, Paramount made the second film adaptation The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in 2015, with Stephen Hillenburg voicing for a human baby.

In China, Nickelodeon partnered with Shenzhen-listed Alpha Group in February this year to produce a series of derivative products, such as toys and collections.

In addition, a SpongeBob SquarePants theme park is under construction in Foshan, Guanggong. It is reported that the total investment of the project reached 1.85 billion U.S. dollars, and the park is expected to be completed and opened to the public in 2020.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn